Excel2LDR: Lowering the bar to entry for defining vocabularies as Linked Data

LAND AND WATER

C3DIS Melbourne, May 2018

Jonathan YuSimon Cox

@jonyu8@dr_shorthair

Recommended best practice for exposing, sharing,

and connecting pieces of data, information, and

knowledge…

on the web.

as structured data

using URIs

with linkages to others

https://www.w3.org/standards/semanticweb/data

Linked Open Data Cloud http://lod-cloud.net/

Government data

User generated

Geo

Publications

32 billion triples in 2014

…

192 billion+ triples in 2017

See http://stats.lod2.eu/stats

Linked Open Data Cloud http://lod-cloud.net/

Government data

User generated

Geo

Publications

32 billion triples in 2014

…

192 billion+ triples in 2017

See http://stats.lod2.eu/stats

This is

awesome!

Everyone

needs this!

Semantic Web / Machine-readable web

Meanwhile in the lab or office …

Looks interesting.

Can’t use it.

Can’t imagine

how to use it

Semantic Web / Machine-readable web

Meanwhile in the lab or office …

Looks interesting.

Can’t use it.

Can’t imagine

how to use it

Might as well be…

Scientist/Researcher

VocabulariesPublished in reports

(Glossary, definitions, lists)

Shared definitions(Codelists, project terms)

Definitionsin the datasetsand databases

Vocabularies are everywhere… in science!

Books

Sadly, many

vocabularies are

not available…

on the web

as structured data

using URIs

with linkages to others

Let’s ask the scientists to make their vocabs available…

• on the web

• as structured data

• using URIs

• with linkages to others

(polite response)

Converters to RDF

RDF Editors

Any23

Tablinker

XL2SKOS

Sheet2RDF

XLWrap

LevelUp CSV to RDF converter

LinkedPipes ETL

TopBraid Composer

Protege TopBraid EVN

Poolparty

Existing tools for publishing vocabs are scary to scientists!

HTTP

RDF

SKOS

OWL

Turtle Triple store

Fuseki

Linked Dataregistry

SPARQL

RESTFormalisms

Web services

1. Define vocabulary

2. Upload to some web platform

3. Review/Publish(/ Refine back to

Step 1)

4. Deprecate

terms

Converters to RDF

RDF EditorsAny23

Tablinker

XL2SKOS

Sheet2RDF

XLWrap

LevelUp CSV to RDF converter

LinkedPipes ETL

TopBraid Composer

Protege TopBraid EVN

Poolparty

HTTPRDF

SKOS

OWL

Turtle

Triple store

Fuseki

Linked Dataregistry

SPARQL

REST

Formalisms

Web services

BioPortal

Research Vocabularies Australia

AgroVoc

Internal Vocabulary Platform

Instead of technology, let’s start with the

person in mind

Scientist/Researcher

What’s your favourite tool to capture lists of

labels, terms and definitions?

Probably…

We use it all the time!

Scientist/Researcher

Scientist/Researcher

Ok, let’s see what we can do…

Principles

1. Enable users to define vocabularies easily using tools familiar to them (Excel)

2. Support users workflow rather than redefine it

3. Reuse any existing components as much as possible

Existing component – Linked Data Registry

http://registry.it.csiro.au

Publishes:- HTML- SPARQL- RDF- JSON-LD- CSV

Upload- Web form- API

User management Versioning per termLifecycle per term

Excel2LDR

1. Define vocabulary

2. Upload to some web platform

3. Review/Publish(/ Refine back to

Step 1)

4. Deprecate

terms

Simple Excel template

Standaloneapplication

to authenticateand upload

Existing Linked Data content publication

registry

Excel2LDR Template (SKOS Semantics)

Excel2LDR Simple application (standalone .exe)

Excel2LDR

1. Define vocabulary

2. Upload to some web platform

3. Review/Publish(/ Refine back to

Step 1)

4. Deprecate

terms

Early evaluation via 2 case studies

Project A Project B

Science domain Soils domain Energy production and distribution

User profile Soil scientist Publishing background

Vocabulary characteristics

Simple hierarchyVocab 1: ~ 280 termsVocab 2: ~ 140 terms

Simple listVocab 1: ~ 50 terms

Feedback – The good…

Good tool for getting these collections up from user perspective

Once the spreadsheet was in order, the tool worked beautifully when making individual or global updates

Feedback – Areas for improvement…

UI needs a few improvements –upload successful or error messages

Tool handles loading only one hierarchy (which suited our simple case)

Some setup required in LDR and spreadsheet template before tool was effective

… a bit of double handling involved having to enter register locations as Sandbox, and then obtaining and moving the register to a different location

Excel2LDR

1. Define vocabulary

2. Upload to some web platform

3. Review/Publish(/ Refine back to

Step 1)

4. Deprecate

terms

Research Vocabularies Australia

Excel2LDR

1. Define vocabulary

2. Upload to some web platform

3. Review/Publish(/ Refine back to

Step 1)

4. Deprecate

terms

Research Vocabularies Australia

This is interesting and I now know how I

can use it!

Semantic Web / Machine-readable web

Jonathan Yu

Research Data Scientist

Jonathan.Yu@csiro.au

@jonyu8

Thank you

https://csiro-enviro-informatics.github.io/ldrpyutils/index#excel2ldr